We won't fire Lemonis, and we shouldn't, but I wish he would just leave

[StarkVegasSteve]

Why is it that TN can lose almost their entire starting lineup back to back years but reload and are top 5 year after year since Vitello has arrived?

They essentially have zero history as a baseball program.

Because they're a cool program with a cool head coach. They don't market their programs as "blue collar" or "dirtbags" or some of the other dumbass stuff our fanbase wants all our players to be. Sometimes you need some assholes. We needed some of their bravado the last two years when we were getting our teeth kicked in.

[Coach34]

Why is it that TN can lose almost their entire starting lineup back to back years but reload and are top 5 year after year since Vitello has arrived?

They essentially have zero history as a baseball program.

They are spending cash and have more off field personnel doing evals than we do

[RockyDog]

Let's lower his buyout to $0 and hope someone hires him away.

We are underachieving in the SEC by 4-5 wins this year. The team has talent and heart, but we should be in line for a top 8 or higher national seed if not for his baffling decisions and inability to manage a bullpen. He's simply not getting everything out of this team that a good coach would, just like he didn't in 2022 or 2023. A good coach, one that we could afford to bring in, should be able to.

And, yes, I continue to predict we will make Omaha in spite of him. But he's holding us back from continuing our elite national standard we held from 2011 through 2021.

LOLOLOLOLOL You and Captain Obvious need to cuddle and comfort each other from where big bad Lemons touched you.

[BrunswickDawg]

Let's lower his buyout to $0 and hope someone hires him away.

We are underachieving in the SEC by 4-5 wins this year. The team has talent and heart, but we should be in line for a top 8 or higher national seed if not for his baffling decisions and inability to manage a bullpen. He's simply not getting everything out of this team that a good coach would, just like he didn't in 2022 or 2023. A good coach, one that we could afford to bring in, should be able to.

And, yes, I continue to predict we will make Omaha in spite of him. But he's holding us back from continuing our elite national standard we held from 2011 through 2021.

[Coach34]

So zero baseball history for Tennessee vs State's Baseball history means Tennessee's coach is a better HS AND Portal recruiter then State's coach!

Your Honor, The State Rests!

It’s the era of NIL. Money matters way more than history

[Cooterpoot]

Not sure where I said that or even remotely hinted at that. Don?t twist my words.

But he definitely doesn?t deserve an extension for it. Maybe a pat on the back after the previous two years. Why make it harder to fire him next year when he tanks again though. In recruiting, the portal and on the field. I?m not saying we deserve the pick of the litter but he?s got a big overhaul ahead of him.

Some of you can?t grasp how we can still be fans and hope we do well but don?t believe in our head coach. Just like players who he tries to recruit from the portal that have snubbed their nose at him. The exact reason we are in this situation.

Yes injuries have created some problems but injuries happen every year so that?s not something new or unique to our team.

Go look at the number of times we've hosted the last 20 years. Then try to recruit with a coach with no damn contract and you won't get squat. I'm not for giving the man 4 years but he's got to be extended a couple years or you might as well fire him. Try firing a guy that just turned it around from last place to a host site and try selling that shit to a good new coach. I'm not a Lemonis fan, but that's where we are. Firing him last year was the better option and we pussed out.

[Cooterpoot]

Because they're a cool program with a cool head coach. They don't market their programs as "blue collar" or "dirtbags" or some of the other dumbass stuff our fanbase wants all our players to be. Sometimes you need some assholes. We needed some of their bravado the last two years when we were getting our teeth kicked in.

See, this is a good point. Our olds that think this is all State should ever be hold this entire university back with that mindset. They hurt NIL with that mindset. They'd rather slob on a coach who is mediocre than go for more. It's the difference between us and the rest of the SEC. Scared ass, conservative assed money don't make money- That's our olds. Let's give a gazillion dollars to the school and none to athletics. Angry, my days were better days, the world of athletics sucks, old man mentality.

[StateDawg44]

Because they're a cool program with a cool head coach.

Thanks for proving my point? Their fans aren't "marketing" anything other than arrogance. The school might be selling something else but that's a totally different issue with our marketing department. Their fans are just as cocky and arrogant as their baseball team and act like they've always been some powerhouse and invented the game. Out of the clear blue. And like you said. It's because they have a legit coach. And we are talking about extending our (uncool) coach.

They are spending cash and have more off field personnel doing evals than we do

Another problem.

We won't ever compete with their spending. So are we just a second-rate option at this point and aren't doing what we can to make sure we get the evaluations right or make up the difference some how? Is our athletic department to blame then?

Go look at the number of times we've hosted the last 20 years. Then try to recruit with a coach with no damn contract and you won't get squat. I'm not for giving the man 4 years but he's got to be extended a couple years or you might as well fire him. Try firing a guy that just turned it around from last place to a host site and try selling that shit to a good new coach. I'm not a Lemonis fan, but that's where we are. Firing him last year was the better option and we pussed out.

You mean like when we made it to Omaha with 4 different coaches? Try holding on to the guy who lost all momentum we had and will bury us again a year from now. Then sell that shit to the same recruits. I realize there will be ebb and flow with each new year and don't expect to be top 5 at all times. It's just clear as day that we aren't competing like we should be when it comes to the portal and having playing time to sell at a program that has proven it knows how to get to Omaha.

I don't expect to land the Skenes, or Montgomery lottery every year by any means. Although with the ties Montgomery had to MS and our program I do feel like that was a fairly big miss. Probably solely because we sucked the previous two years under Lemo. There are a ton of other players that we whiffed on that could've helped immensely. But we pull players that don't contribute one bit like Hoyle.

Your points are conflicting. You complain about recruiting and not doing what we need to take the next step. Yet say we need to extend the same person we are complaining about. I can concede another year (1) on a contract and the smallest buyout we can get him to sign. I just don't believe players are weighing that much of their decisions based on Lemonis' contract details. DVH, Schloss, Vitello, etc... I could see it contributing some. But you're giving too much credit to Lemonis with this IMO and those coaches don't have this problem.

ETA: If a player is waffling on whether or not a year contract extension is long enough then they probably aren't going to be an immediate impact or top contributor that would be gone to the draft the next year any ways.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Thanks for proving my point? Their fans aren't "marketing" anything other than arrogance. The school might be selling something else but that's a totally different issue with our marketing department. Their fans are just as cocky and arrogant as their baseball team and act like they've always been some powerhouse and invented the game. Out of the clear blue. And like you said. It's because they have a legit coach. And we are talking about extending our (uncool) coach.




Another problem.

We won't ever compete with their spending. So are we just a second-rate option at this point and aren't doing what we can to make sure we get the evaluations right or make up the difference some how? Is our athletic department to blame then?




You mean like when we made it to Omaha with 4 different coaches? Try holding on to the guy who lost all momentum we had and will bury us again a year from now. Then sell that shit to the same recruits. I realize there will be ebb and flow with each new year and don't expect to be top 5 at all times. It's just clear as day that we aren't competing like we should be when it comes to the portal and having playing time to sell at a program that has proven it knows how to get to Omaha.

I don't expect to land the Skenes, or Montgomery lottery every year by any means. Although with the ties Montgomery had to MS and our program I do feel like that was a fairly big miss. Probably solely because we sucked the previous two years under Lemo. There are a ton of other players that we whiffed on that could've helped immensely. But we pull players that don't contribute one bit like Hoyle.

Your points are conflicting. You complain about recruiting and not doing what we need to take the next step. Yet say we need to extend the same person we are complaining about. I can concede another year (1) on a contract and the smallest buyout we can get him to sign. I just don't believe players are weighing that much of their decisions based on Lemonis' contract details. DVH, Schloss, Vitello, etc... I could see it contributing some. But you're giving too much credit to Lemonis with this IMO and those coaches don't have this problem.

ETA: If a player is waffling on whether or not a year contract extension is long enough then they probably aren't going to be an immediate impact or top contributor that would be gone to the draft the next year any ways.

1. We changed coaches 4 times in 4 years out of necessity. It wasn't just because we wanted to. Our success during that is the exception. It's not the rule.

2. Montgomery was never going to come here. We all thought wrong on that one. And, our portal was pretty damn good this year. I'd venture to guess almost every SEC team would take Khal Stephen and I'm fairly certain he would be the Friday night guy on every team not named Arkansas. I know there's a team in Baton Rouge that wishes they would've gone after him instead of Holman. On Hoyle, we spent no NIL money and he was a walk on. He was carried for pinch running. We did it as a favor to the Mangum's.

3. On the contract stuff, the kids may not care but the parents do. Baseball is not football or basketball where there's a bunch of transfers. These parents want to know who's going to be the ones around their kid 24/7. If Lemonis can't sell that he will be here our recruiting will get worse than you currently think it is. Also, it's obviously not too bad outside of pitching.

Look at the end of the day, you can hate Lemonis, which you do, all you want. But we aren't firing him and he's going to get extended at least 2 years.

[Johnson85]

Go look at the number of times we've hosted the last 20 years. Then try to recruit with a coach with no damn contract and you won't get squat. I'm not for giving the man 4 years but he's got to be extended a couple years or you might as well fire him. Try firing a guy that just turned it around from last place to a host site and try selling that shit to a good new coach. I'm not a Lemonis fan, but that's where we are. Firing him last year was the better option and we pussed out.

We should at least try to extend him to four on paper. If he wants to reject a 4 or even 3 year extension because the buyout is too low after the first year or two, then that's his prerogative, but we should at least try for it. Even if the contract is basically worthless after a year or two because the buyout is nominal, it's better for the coach and the school for it to be in place.

[StateDawg44]

1. We changed coaches 4 times in 4 years out of necessity. It wasn't just because we wanted to. Our success during that is the exception. It's not the rule.

2. Montgomery was never going to come here. We all thought wrong on that one. And, our portal was pretty damn good this year. I'd venture to guess almost every SEC team would take Khal Stephen and I'm fairly certain he would be the Friday night guy on every team not named Arkansas. I know there's a team in Baton Rouge that wishes they would've gone after him instead of Holman. On Hoyle, we spent no NIL money and he was a walk on. He was carried for pinch running. We did it as a favor to the Mangum's.

3. On the contract stuff, the kids may not care but the parents do. Baseball is not football or basketball where there's a bunch of transfers. These parents want to know who's going to be the ones around their kid 24/7. If Lemonis can't sell that he will be here our recruiting will get worse than you currently think it is. Also, it's obviously not too bad outside of pitching.

Look at the end of the day, you can hate Lemonis, which you do, all you want. But we aren't firing him and he's going to get extended at least 2 years.

Hate isn't the word. Just don't have confidence he is capable of taking our program and making that next step. I hope he proves me wrong.

I'll gladly eat crow if it's served to me next year.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Hate isn't the word. Just don't have confidence he is capable of taking our program and making that next step. I hope he proves me wrong.

I'll gladly eat crow if it's served to me next year.

And that's fair. I myself still am in wait and see mode, but I also think Lemonis gets shit on for stuff but not applauded when he does something good. There's gotta be a balance. It's ok to say you're not happy, but some are acting like we're the same team that we've been the past two years. That's not based in reality. If we sweep Mizzou, and that's a big 17 IF, we would 18 conference games. That's a damn 9 game CONFERENCE turnaround and the toughest conference in college baseball. That's impressive.

[Cooterpoot]

Thanks for proving my point? Their fans aren't "marketing" anything other than arrogance. The school might be selling something else but that's a totally different issue with our marketing department. Their fans are just as cocky and arrogant as their baseball team and act like they've always been some powerhouse and invented the game. Out of the clear blue. And like you said. It's because they have a legit coach. And we are talking about extending our (uncool) coach.




Another problem.

We won't ever compete with their spending. So are we just a second-rate option at this point and aren't doing what we can to make sure we get the evaluations right or make up the difference some how? Is our athletic department to blame then?




You mean like when we made it to Omaha with 4 different coaches? Try holding on to the guy who lost all momentum we had and will bury us again a year from now. Then sell that shit to the same recruits. I realize there will be ebb and flow with each new year and don't expect to be top 5 at all times. It's just clear as day that we aren't competing like we should be when it comes to the portal and having playing time to sell at a program that has proven it knows how to get to Omaha.

I don't expect to land the Skenes, or Montgomery lottery every year by any means. Although with the ties Montgomery had to MS and our program I do feel like that was a fairly big miss. Probably solely because we sucked the previous two years under Lemo. There are a ton of other players that we whiffed on that could've helped immensely. But we pull players that don't contribute one bit like Hoyle.

Your points are conflicting. You complain about recruiting and not doing what we need to take the next step. Yet say we need to extend the same person we are complaining about. I can concede another year (1) on a contract and the smallest buyout we can get him to sign. I just don't believe players are weighing that much of their decisions based on Lemonis' contract details. DVH, Schloss, Vitello, etc... I could see it contributing some. But you're giving too much credit to Lemonis with this IMO and those coaches don't have this problem.

ETA: If a player is waffling on whether or not a year contract extension is long enough then they probably aren't going to be an immediate impact or top contributor that would be gone to the draft the next year any ways.

How many recruits have we lost from our class this time? One? We aren't losing kids, we suck at identifying talent. We'll try to rebuild with the portal but we haven't signed a single big timer in the portal so far. Recruiting hasn't been good like I said. But beyond that, there's no complaint beyond hanging on to Foxy and some minor stupidity. I wanted a new coach last year. Let the money guys I mentioned suffer through it the next couple years. Lemonis isn't getting fired. He gives those guys what they want and they keep him. We missed our chance last year. No kid is signing up to play for a coach one year. Lemonis has one year left on his contract. You extend him two years without and increase in buyout and if he doesn't like it, let him walk.

[Cooterpoot]

We should at least try to extend him to four on paper. If he wants to reject a 4 or even 3 year extension because the buyout is too low after the first year or two, then that's his prerogative, but we should at least try for it. Even if the contract is basically worthless after a year or two because the buyout is nominal, it's better for the coach and the school for it to be in place.

Meh, with the portal, 4 years or three years doesn't matter anymore.

[Pancho]

I kinda see both sides but I think he was handed the keys to a jet and has turned it into a twin engine cessna

[Brobi-wan]

In the NIL era would State be able to have Bednar and Sims on the same team?

[Coach34]

In the NIL era would State be able to have Bednar and Sims on the same team?

This gets overlooked way too much. During our best run in the school history culminating with a title- NIL wasnt a factor. Lemon is the only coach of ours that has had to deal with it. We are seeing its impact now with State falling, then Mississippi, and now LSU after winning a title. Look at Candy falling back after the run they had- they are about to have a losing record in the SEC this year. After playing us for the Natty- they havent made it out of a Regional and are struggling.

Bottom line- Lemon responded this season like he had to. Let's finish this one strong hopefully and get ready for 2025.

[Coach34]

How many recruits have we lost from our class this time? One? We aren't losing kids, we suck at identifying talent. We'll try to rebuild with the portal but we haven't signed a single big timer in the portal so far. Recruiting hasn't been good like I said. .

We pulled Ledbetter who ended in the 1st round. We have pulled other quality portal guys.

We arent going to pull the sexy, big name guy now that NIL is here. That ship has sailed.

[Cooterpoot]

We pulled Ledbetter who ended in the 1st round. We have pulled other quality portal guys.

We arent going to pull the sexy, big name guy now that NIL is here. That ship has sailed.

But we could. We tried Montgomery and Skenes. Had we not sucked, who knows. We can't stay in rebuild mode because that hurts the portal options. Big timers want to win.

[StarkVegasSteve]

But we could. We tried Montgomery and Skenes. Had we not sucked, who knows. We can't stay in rebuild mode because that hurts the portal options. Big timers want to win.

Montgomery you could make the argument for that had we not sucked he would've come. Skenes was going to LSU. Wes Johnson sold him a vision. The good news is that now, with Parker, I think we have a little more to sell when you look at the success of Stephen this year and then the growth of guys like Davis and Harden.